Ramana Maharshi’s meeting with a master of Sanskrit and non-dual philosophy (Vedanta) named Ganapati Muni, speaks to the effectiveness of chanting as an avenue for awakening.

At the time, Ramana had been living in silence for 11 years in a cave on a mountain (Arunachala) in south central India. One hot fall afternoon, Ganapati Muni was in despair over his inability to achieve Realization despite enormous efforts.

He rushed up the hillside to see the sage, now in his late twenties. Ganapati Muni fell at his feet, clasped them in his hands and said that despite all his efforts, he still did not understand what spiritual practice (tapas) was. He begged Ramana to tell him the nature of spiritual practice.

Ramana looked at him silently for about fifteen minutes and then said only two sentences, the last of which was “When a mantra is repeated, if one watches the Source from which the mantra sound is produced the mind is absorbed in That; that is tapas (spiritual practice)”.

Ganapati Muni was overwhelmed and awakened by this insight.

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Have chanted / done mantra practice at least occasionally for most of the last 20 years.

Mantra practice has meant different things at different times, and served different functions.

Wanted to write something about mantra practice.

What actual part it played remains an open question.

In the first century of the common era, (historian’s best guess) the Buddhadharma reached China. Mahayana presentation, so it came with mantras, in Sanskrit.

The Chinese believed that the Sanskrit mantras carried some powerful vibrational qualities which came from their sound, not just their meaning; thus mantras were not translated from Sanskrit into Chinese because their essence was untranslatable.

This belief (a meme) was passed down through the centuries and still exists in Mahayana Buddhism.